NAGERCOIL: German national Sonntag Rainer Hermann, who was deported in the early hours of Tuesday from Chennai after he was picked from a downmarket lodge in Nagercoil on Sunday midnight, lived like a hippie and had no links with any NGO or foreign agencies or spy networks, PMANE convenor S P Udayakumar said.“We used to call him Rainer and he has been visiting Nagercoil for the past three to four years though it is about a year since I contacted him,” Udayakumar said addressing a press meet in Nagercoil.He described Rainer as an simple man. A computer expert, he had been visiting various countries to study their culture after taking voluntary retirement from his job, he said and added that he and activist R S Lal Mohan knew Rainer well.Udayakumar said that the German was no way connected with the anti-nuclear protests. Meanwhile, Lal Mohan, a retired scientist now running an NGO, ‘Conservation for Nature Trust’, issued a statement saying Rainer is a tourist. “He was staying in a low budget hotel spending `200 a day because he could not afford to pay costly accommodation. He has been spending his retired life in India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Loas as life is cheap in these countries,” he said.“He had called me sometimes to discuss about dolphins, nature and tree planting. He is a nature lover. It is absolutely wrong to think he funded any NGOs and supported the anti-Koodankulam agitation. He has no money. If the government has any proof that he supported the agitation by paying crores of rupees, he should have been detained,” he said. “As far as I know, Rainer never gave any donation to any NGO,” he added.Meanwhile, a New Delhi report said the German embassy were not informed about the deportation of Hermann.“Through our channels we have been informed that by now the German has left the country,” said the acting Germany envoy Cord Meier-Klodt.
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